The Fish Market isn't a restaurant in the traditional sense. Rather, it's a food truck. Banish from your mind the roach coaches that service construction sites in the civilized Western world. This is haute food truck food at it's finest.

Start with a decked out kitchen-in-a-truck. Add a limited menu of very fresh food that changes daily. Throw in a charming outdoor eating area of white picnic benches covered with blue umbrellas and Chinese-style white lantern lights. Top it off with a British proprietor whose English will delight your expat ears. The result is an urban hip eatery with ultra fresh food and a wallet-friendly prices.

The fish tacos are my favorite thing on the menu. You get two corn tortillas stuffed with grilled corvina, a flavorful vegetable medley, and a drizzle of a tangy cream sauce. Each fish taco is the perfect combination of flaky white fish, mild corn flavor from the tortilla, a bit of crunch from the vegetables, and a creamy KAPOW from the sauce. The fish tacos are served with a house-made rice that has small bites of vegetables and thin slices of Jalapenos. 

I thought the portion size was perfect, as did my big American friend, Joe. But my svelte Brazilian sweetheart eats like a 300-pound gorilla. He got two lunches--the grilled mahi mahi with rice and the Thai slow-cooked beef with rice. I liked that all of the dishes have a Thai-infused kick. It gives the food at The Fish Market a unique signature flavor.

The Fish Market set up shop in an abandoned lot on Avenida Central in Casco Viejo. This is a newly renovated street with a few crumbling buildings in the background. I'm a white table cloth devotee, but there is something about the whole food-truck-with-and-awning-next-to-a-hollowed-out-building-on-a-newly-renovated-brick-street that absolutely works.  Plus, this spot gets a gentle breeze that is missing on the street. The temperature was as perfect as the food.

The meals are served in a plastic basket lined with waxed paper. If you like fresh fish with a kick, this is one of the best $7 meals you can find in Panama. 

Want to know what's going on in Panama? Read The Visitor. It's a tourist-focused Panama weekly newspaper with articles in both English and Spanish. The articles are about everything Panama, including stories such as:

• The Panama Canal expansion
• Infrastructure projects, including roads, the Panama City subway and airports
• The latest rock band
  
• Festivals 
• Orchids
• Holidays, both Panamanian and American
• The story behind a rare orchid
• Conservation projects
• Famous visitors
• Things to do, places to stay, and restaurants to try in each region
• Panama Facts
• Activities for kids

If you need help finding fun things to fill your sun-soaked days, there is a whole section devoted to upcoming activities in the "Events" section. You can find everything from art exhibits to concerts to children's workshops.  The problem is never finding things to do but rather choosing the events that you like the most.

Limited-time daily deals were pioneered in the U.S. by companies like Groupon. Before moving to Panama, I thought the daily deals would be on my "gonna miss it" list. I was thrilled to find out that Oferta Simple (translated from Spanish means "Simple Offer") was Panama's answer to daily deals.

As a newcomer to Panama, I bought every experiential Oferta that sounded the least bit interesting. Not only can you try new restaurants and get beauty treatments for a deeply discounted price, but you can also experience a lot that Panama has to offer.

Like Groupon, one deal is offered each day, and a minimum number of people have to buy it for the deal to be on. Each deal is available for a limited time--usually a few days--or until the deal sells out. Here is just a sampling of what you can experience with Oferta Simple:

• Hotels all over Panama, from 5-star resorts to isolated no-frills beach bungalows
• Dance classes, from belly dancing to ballet
• Exercise classes, from zumba to Cross Fit
• Concerts, from Justin Bieber to Enrique Iglesius
• Sporting events, from motocross to baseball
• Designer brands, such as Guess and Nike
• Enrichment classes, from language schools to etiquette classes
• Consumer products, from lighting to kitchen items
• Dental services, such as cleaning to whitening
• Optical services, such as eye exams and eye glasses
• Medical services, such as weight loss 
• Pet services, from grooming to teeth cleaning
• Adventure activities, such as zip lining, sky diving and paintball
• Car rentals

The best part is that expats share our favorite daily deals on Facebook... just in case we happen to miss the daily email touting today's deal. If you're not my Facebook friend, friend me now. I'm the only Melissa Darnay on Facebook. Just include a message that you found me on this blog.

What I like about Oferta Simple is it's about living. So happy living in Panama!

When I moved to Panama, I realized I couldn't bring all 175 cookbooks with me, so I only brought a few of my favorites. The cookbook I use the most is one the church ladies put together when I was a kid growing up in California. The cookbook is full of mouthwatering recipes that homemakers brought to potlucks year after year. 

I love this cookbook because the flavors are reminiscent of my childhood, a time before I started counting fat and carbs and before I knew that anything with high fructose corn syrup should have a skull and crossbones tattooed on its label. The cookbook is chalk-full of recipes that call for things like: an entire pound of grated cheese, a cup of shortening, or a bottle of Karo's Syrup. Even though I know these ingredients are on the ultra-bad list, I yearn for certain flavors at the holidays.

As I was perusing my tattered church cookbook in search of tasty treats to serve for my Thanksgiving feast in Panama, I realized that this California church cookbook is also full of ingredients that are abundant in California... but not so easy to find in Panama. Items like persimmons are non-existent, and imported specialty ingredients like Cool Whip, pecans and Karo Syrup can be found... but for a price. 

I've decided that this Thanksgiving is going to be a mix of the traditional (like my famous chocolate espresso pecan pie even though pecans are jaw-droppingly expensive)and the new Panama-infused recipes (such as pesto bread and pineapple chutney for my turkey). The Panama twist to favorite holiday recipes celebrate the fact that local produce is so inexpensive. The reality is that a typical Thanksgiving feast will cost about the same amount in Panama as it did in the U.S., once the scales tip up for the price of imported goods and tip down when I buy super-cheap local items. 

The definite upside to Panama is that it's easier to eat a healthier diet here because of the abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish. Without even realizing it, I have developed a way of eating that incorporates more food in their natural states and fewer processed foods. The fact that I'll enjoy several holiday recipes from the church ladies' book-of-fat will make these holiday indulgences all the more sweet.

Panamanians love their holidays. I mention this blog post after blog post. Yesterday was the anniversary of Panama's separation from Colombia. At 5:45 in the morning, fireworks were going off over Panama City. This was followed by a uniform line of eight helicopters flying overhead. I've never seen pre-dawn fireworks nor have i seen syncronized helicopters. It would have been a treat any time of day, but watching the festivities while I was on my balcony sipping my coffee was a treat unique to Panama.

Following is a list of Panama holidays for 2014. Although some holidays are the same date each year, many change. You can expect another list about this time next year!